Transcript

on the top table. There are a lot of new faces so I'm going to kick off with myself. My name is Councillor Girma Lal and I'm a council for Heston East Ward and I am the chair of the Heston Cranford area forum and I'll go to my right if you can. Good evening everyone I'm Councillor Shanta De Raduat, Councillor in Heston West and leader of the council as well. Good evening everyone I am Councillor Aksa Ahmed and I am a Councillor for Heston East. Hi good evening my name is Ariaz Gul, I'm a Councillor from Heston Central Ward. Hello good evening my name is Sugbir Dariwar, I am a Councillor for Cranford Ward. Good evening all my name is Councillor Vikram Gaurau and I'm proud to be a Councillor in Cranford Ward. Good evening my name is Gazala Bhatt, I am a Councillor for Cranford Ward. Good evening I'm Emma Sudu, I'm Councillor for Heston West. Good evening everyone my name is Karmat Malik, I'm a Councillor for Heston West. And good evening I'm Councillor Harleen Antwale here, I represent Heston Central Ward. Nice to meet you guys. Okay I also know that in the background on my problem on my left and some at the back we've got certain offices of the council from traffic, community enforcement, housing etc to answer any council related questions that may come up later on in the open forum but before we do that we've got some preliminary stuff that we have to do. So moving on to item two on the agenda now the minutes of the meeting held on the 21st of March, it was quite some time ago and unfortunately the meeting in June had to be cancelled because of the elections that took place. So I'm just going to do some formal tidying up and request Councillors to check the minutes of the meeting held on the 21st of March this year for matters arising and accuracy. So we have page three, page four, page five, and page six. First of all for accuracy, agree? And are there any matters arising? Okay in terms of matters arising I'll just like to pick off on one thing that's on page five and it was a request made at a previous meeting regarding the Heston GP service on Cranford Lane. So I would just like to tidy up by making sure that we have a response for residents or the resident that asks that particular question. I think it was Michael. So the response that we've had to date is regarding the Heston Health Centre redevelopment, Northwest London ICP is currently in process of developing a strategy for primary care estates across Northwest London. Any local plans for a state development redevelopment etc will form part of this estate strategy and depending on the recommendations and outcomes of the strategy this won't happen. So until this is finalised we are not in a position to provide you any with any further update. So quite clearly there is obviously stuff happening and you've seen it on the news regarding the NHS as well so they've got their own issues to deal with but we are definitely looking as local ward Councillors representing this area. So local ward Councillors representing this area for that site to be developed but it's very much in the hands of our NHS partners. The next thing I'd like to just pick up before we go on to a presentation is that quite often Lambton Park comes up in our discussions and regarding possible issues that are there and I just want to flag up that there is a project underway to have Lambton Park improvements done. So there is a survey out already so I would ask you all who are concerned about the facilities at Lambton Park, any improvements, any ideas you have etc to make sure you feedback your points to the survey that's been conducted. In addition to that I think we had quite a strong representation from residents to utilise the park a little bit better than we're doing at the moment and an area was set aside by council officers, I've got here Nabila who set aside a Lambton Park gardening sessions for autumn and winter so again there's a schedule for those who love gardening etc that you can pop over to Lambton Park and participate in the gardening sessions. So that's a quick plug for that. Now we're going to move over to item three on the agenda which is to do with the changes to the area forum meetings and I would like Thomas to come forward and present that. Cool thank you chair. Can everyone hear me okay? Yeah brilliant. Okay thank you ever so much for having me here everyone and for those of you who don't know me I'm Thomas Allen and my team the people in purple and some lanyards they're responsible for delivering area forums amongst a whole host of other things that they do out in the community. For the past year or so we've been working to try and increase the amount of people that are coming, increase opportunities for people to have a say, learn more about their community, connect with councillors and through part of that process we've been collecting feedback, we've been speaking to a lot of services, residents, councillors about things that we can do to improve area forums and off the back of all of that work we've put forward a series of suggested improvements to councillors which we'll be looking to introduce over the next few months and so I'm going to walk you through these today. First off I want to start by saying thank you ever so much for your feedback. You will notice on your seats there are feedback forms that we have every time that we have a forum and we've used that information to kind of inform the suggested improvements that I'll talk you through today and some key findings from that are that on average 80% of those who take part in the feedback forms coming to area forums said that the forums are good or very good which is really nice so thank you for that. In addition the marketplace so that informal section in the first hour where you get to meet other community groups and connect with councillors is very popular and there's a desire for more of that. Likewise we've had increasing more involvement from community groups such as Sea Change West London, Let's Go Outside and Learn etc and that's been very popular as well. In addition we I think last time is the introduction of an action tracker we've trialled that sort of thing in other forums in other parts of the borough and where we have done that it's been very popular so what I'll be talking you through today is an enhanced way in which we can do that. So in terms of what's going to be improved first off this is an improvement we've already implemented is a new welcome desk so hopefully when you came in today you would have been greeted by one of the members of my team and they their job there is to support you to access the right services. As soon as you're walking through the door if you need to speak to someone we'll take you to them whether that's a councillor a community group or whatever and if you can't find that person we will work with you to get that email sent to the right person there and then. The next kind of improvement is more ways to ask questions so hopefully you will see in the question box that's there we appreciate that not everyone feels totally comfortable standing up in front of large groups of people and sticking a hand up and so we've now got a question box for people who want to anonymously ask questions or would like them to ask on their behalf. We're also in the process of developing an online kind of platform where people can ask questions in between that will come to the forums as well that's work in progress though. I mentioned earlier the action plan so I'll talk through this in detail in a second but this is just more opportunities for us all to work together as a community and as a council and through partners to achieve more outcomes for residents where they live. Likewise hopefully we'll talk to my colleague Shazna here on this table about things. We want more input from residents with regards to what types of topics should we be focusing on and I'll tell you a bit more about that in a second. In addition to that I think Heston Cranford's done this very well compared to the other forums is involving community groups in the organizing and delivery of forums and so we're suggesting the establishment of community steering groups which I'll yeah go into a bit more detail in a second and finally more of a community focus. At the moment it still feels quite formal and there's presentation from council services which is great but we're also hearing a lot from people that a strong community focus that we've had the Repair Cafe and Heston and Luke talked before which has been very valued thank you so we want to see more of that sort of stuff. What will not change is the open forum section and this is highly valued by everybody and is essentially the essence of the forum and the role of councillors and chairs as they're as the community leaders and the orchestrators of the forum itself. So I'm going to talk a little bit about the area forum action plan in Heston and Cranford this is currently known as the action tracker and so what we'll be looking to do is kind of evolve that into something a bit different. So what is the action plan? It's a way to explore ideas and address concerns in their community. It's a way to bring the community the council and its partners together to think about how we can address some of those things. It's a tool to support the councillors as community leaders to champion the issues and ideas that are raised but it's also crucially an important tool for the forum for you for all of us to make sure that we're working on together to deliver outcomes for residents. What it's not is a list of unachievable or unclear actions there are processes that I'll get to in a moment that will help us make sure that doesn't happen. They're not also not a list of actions that don't have support either from the community or those that would be involved in delivering them. They're also not a list of business as usual items you would have seen lots of services here today we would hope that certain issues we can just sort out straight away with those as a normal process. They're also not a replacement for the personal issues that you might want to raise with councillors and they're not a replacement for the petitions process or the complaints process either. So how then would it work? First off a resident will have an idea about something they would like to improve in their neighborhood or maybe there's an issue that affects a lot of people team members and there'll soon be a process online where you can share that idea. We will then contact you potentially with a councillor as well and explore who needs to be involved in in making that a reality and then once we've worked that out we'll come back to the forum present it to everyone here and give the residents a chance to throw support behind that idea maybe challenge it or volunteer to get involved perhaps. Once it's agreed at forum the chair will nominate an action champion which will be a ward councillor and that councillor will be responsible essentially for starting a working group making sure that everyone's speaking to each other that the community involved etc and then reporting progress in a way that we'll see shortly in the forum back to the forum for scrutiny and celebration. Residents will get the chance to view the progress not just at each forum so you don't have to wait three months we'll have stuff online and you can contact your councillors or staff and we'll gladly update you on the progress that we're making on those items and finally once it's achieved we'll present those findings back to the forum and hopefully celebrate them. So that's action plans the next biggest thing is themed area forums so we've collected we're trialing this at the moment we collect some ideas but themed area forums essentially allow us to kind of eat for each area form that we have and there are four a year we'll allow them along specific topic areas like health or environment or parks or something like that and themes will allow us for a more deeper and meaningful focus in some of those issues. It might also be that we combine themes and have multiple kind of issues or things that we look at. There will still be a wide range of services in attendance so if you want to come and speak to say housing but the themes on the environment those services will still be there to speak to you and and answer your questions. Communities will have the opportunity to influence themes and how they're selected and we've started doing that today and this is how they'll be selected. So there are four area forums in a year and the first one of those cycles is in the summer and so in that summer we will have an exercise much like this and one online and as a community we will help the chair select the themes for the following three and we're trialing this today for the next two themes so if you haven't told us what types of things you want to cover yet either write it in your feedback forms or make sure you speak to Shaz know on the way out and so the residents can can do this normally through speaking to any one of us or through an online mechanism that we'll create and crucially though the chair will have the final decision at or immediately after the forum in terms of who's themes are so what we're doing is helping the chair make that decision. Finally of the big sort of changes is community steering groups which are very exciting so these will be informal groups of residents possibly representatives from community groups as well as partners like I don't know GPs or the police or whatever who have a direct interest or relation to the theme that's picked. There are a way for the community to support the chair in organizing and delivering the forum and also I think crucially a way to support us to encourage the community and the community and get them participating and having their say at forums as well. What they're not is a replacement for the court officer group I think my team did a pretty good job and I like to keep them involved or and they're certainly not a formal kind of group that would have any power over the chair that still very much stays the same and so steering group could recommend agenda items according to the theme so maybe if there's a helper say to mental health they could kind of suggest specific topics to look at. They might also recommend services that I'd like to see there or community groups to participate in the forum as well and they might also suggest different formats in which we can have the event so at the moment we have the sort of informal section maybe we could do that differently and have taster sessions or demonstrations or or breakout groups and collect information that way and there's also the option and we've had a few people approach us tonight so thank you to those of you who had people that want to get involved in helping deliver the forums by volunteering helping us kind of coordinate the foods help people sit down etc. So that's it really for the kind of the main big ticket items if it's okay chair I'm open to tap those changes. Yeah okay anyone have any questions about anything? Does anybody have questions for Thomas regarding this initiative? We're trying to encourage more engagement with residents you can clearly see that we're looking at all options and this is one formulation that's been developing over the last year or so so you've got it coming near to the end of its formal process so any questions on the proposal in front of us? Quick question on the theme for the steering group you said residents so do we contact you how do we find out about the theme? Yeah really good one and so yes you can do that at the forum by speaking to any one of the team members which will now be wearing purple when they're at an event and we're in the process of developing an online platform that allows for much more two-way conversations for those of you that are good at digital stuff. Councillors are obviously a key way in which you can ask to get involved as well we haven't quite developed the online platform bit yet but when we do we'll do lots of communications about how to get involved. Ultimately how the themes are selected and how the community groups are created will be down to the chair so at the the first forum when we start talking about what themes might be we will have a conversation. I hope that answers your question. Just to say we've got a board behind you there see all those post-its if there's a theme that you're thinking of something you're passionate about and you want to tell us about that you would like to be considered please grab a post-it on the way out it's not too late. Thank you chair. Hands up if you've got questions. Any further questions on this agenda item? Okay good fine well thank you thomas thank you very much. Which neatly brings us to the next item on the agenda item number four and it's an update of the area forum action tracker again it's something that we've been talking about for quite some time. It's taken time to develop it fully but today I'm hoping to get some feedback to you about some of the issues which were put onto the action tracker at the previous meeting so I'm going to kick off with an item which was you can either introduce the item or I can introduce the item and you can talk to it into okay fine so we're going to go word by word on the issues that were brought to our attention. So the first one over to you councilor Rajawat. Chair thank you very much so this was I believe raised all the way back in January residents raised concerns around a lack of children's play facilities on the Braveson estate in particular the Braveson green those that live in the area will know that there is a muga there for older children however as ward councils we were very conscious along with residents that there wasn't anything for younger kids so I can report back to you chair that the council will be launching a consultation later this year to gather residents views on the creation of a children's playground on Braveson open space this consultation will be open to residents of the Braveson estate as well as the neighboring neighborhood sorry Norman Crescent estate including Armitage road residents will be offered a variety of ways to share their views including surveys which will be both online and paper versions in-person consultation events and drop-in sessions at the Braveson community center further details of the odd consultation dates and how to get involved will be shared in the coming weeks and for more information please contact Matthew Curtis who's waving over there. Thank you chair. Thank you councilor Rajawat and the next item if I can ask councilor Sidhu to speak to you okay so this item was raised on the air form on the 8th of January 2020 form which is caused an infestation of rats an update the gate has been sealed off and the area has been cleared if there's any further news that's houseway.gov.uk okay thank you council Sidhu and now I move on to councilor Kermit Malik uh thank you chair this was raised in the forum 21st of March 2024 a resident from the Brisbane estate raised concern about multiple incursion by the travelers community on the open space the council park team have installed bollard around the parameter of the open space on the Brisbane state to prevent any unauthorized vehicles accessing this space in the future for more information you can say park and hounds logo.uk thank you councilor Kermit Malik and can I move over to councilor Harleen Atwell okay there's been a switch councilor goal over to you okay thank you Mr chair as uh I'm the counselor from Heston center board in the last meeting in the march there was a two main issue was raised uh first of all is St Paul's anti-social behavior and the second issue was is the uh the shopping parade on the victory farm road in the alley private alleyway the following the area for a meeting and the meeting was the site was conducted with the residents officers and all the departments and at that time we raised one issue and make action plan according action plans we decide one complex caseworker will do the regular meeting and that meeting will be is going to be conducted but at the same time all the team in the department decided to do the regular patrolling for cleaning and fry tipping and the action has been done so the further is the action plan is to do the regular patrolling on the behind alleyway as well on the same the victory farm road and now the team is working on it so any further information you want to get comfort is available so you can talk to them or email we are available to listen to any issue and the second issue was discussed St Paul's anti-social behavior due to unfortunately with the bushy area on the private alleyway some residents here in the meeting they are the witness that the alleyway has been cleaned and now there's no bushes and a lot of has things been settled and the regular patrolling has been started by the police and the regular department so the patrolling is started regularly so no a lot of issues have been decreased under control any issues we are available to listen thank you thank you council girl uh now over to council axahmid next item yes um so this item was raised at the area forum on the 8th of january and the 21st of march 2024 the council conducted a traffic survey in june on this on the stretch of heston road between the m4 and wheatlands in in which vehicle speeds were also recorded the average speeds along the section of heston road ranged from 18 to 22 miles per hour depending on the pacific location according to this department according to the department for transport guidelines on setting local speed limits if the average speed is at or below 24 miles per hour a 20 mile per hour limit is likely to result in general compliance based on the recorded data this section of heston road meets the criteria for 20 miles per hour speed limit with signage only while this does not eliminate the possibility of individual speeding incidents the data indicates that average speeds are already within national standards making it difficult to justify the introduction of additional physical trans traffic calming measures at this time for residents who remain concerned concerned about speeding the community road watch program offers an opportunity to collaborate with the council and police to monitor vehicle speeds and promote safer driving for more information about the program please contact community road watch at met the police dot uk thank you okay council omid thank you um the next one i've got here counselor but thank you chair this item was raised at the area forum on 8th january 2024 and has been highlighted at previous area forum meetings following the last heston and cranford area forum meeting residents have raised further concerns about congestion in the right turn filter lane at the junction of the a 312 high street in cranford this congestion this congestion is causing vehicles to dangerously slow down on the dual carriageway it is believed that this issue may be linked to a fault with the pedestrian signal crossing specifically when no pedestrians press the wait button the green filter for right turning vehicles fails to activate transport for london has been informed of this issue however due to ongoing it issues resulting from a recent cyber incident their network performance team is currently unable to investigate once these issues are resolved the team will conduct a proper investigation we will provide updates as soon as we receive further news from tfn thank you thank you council but next one item on the agenda council vicar garywell thank you chair appreciate the notice um so the second item for cranford ward is about fire safety concerns on crane lodge road and redwood estates the desired outcome was the installation of fire doors at crane lodge road estate and redwood estate it was raised on the 8th of january at a previous area forum so an update as of this month is that the blocks on these estates were built using a 1960s method called the bison system looking around the room not many people were born then but it was a system back then the front doors are complex to replace due to side panels with utility meters and asbestos in the headers removing the asbestos is difficult and requires specialized contractors meaning residents on the same floor would need to temporarily leave their homes the original contractors couldn't provide a compliant design but the council has found two others who have successfully installed similar doors elsewhere a pilot installation will be done in an empty flat to test the process including timing costs and management once we have the outcome of the pilot the council will agree the program and work with our procurement team to appoint contractors so i appreciate this is a slight drip-free drip feed solution we can't do it all in one go naturally because that would mean people would have to move out of their homes and their lives would be temporarily disrupted so so do have a little bit of patient with us please our procurement team are very good at finding the correct contractors and getting us the best value of money for money as a council and ultimately as residents as well i will say if there are any concerns in the meantime do contact us as your cranford councillors and we'll be happy to address them as well thank you chair thank you council very well and the last last item on the the tracker is a is a borough it's a it's an area-wide issue and it's regarding the adequacy of waste provision frequency of waste collection at hmos and flats above shops this issue again comes up quite regularly at the area forums and in terms of the council's response into this council highways completed the mid-year grit bin cleaning program in june with one more cleansing scheduled before the end of the year the provision of flats above shops in most areas are adequate and we continue to work with our contractors recycling 360 to maintain regular collections twice a week however i think we've all noticed this we have noticed instances of anti-social behavior with inappropriate items being placed into the grip bins this reduces the capacity for proper household waste disposal so the council will be circulating leaflets and advisory letters to residents of licorice farm road and heston road reminding of them of their responsibilities for houses in multiple occupation waste provision is assessed on a case-by-case basis any concerns that you may have about inadequate waste containers can be referred to us as local councils or by the landlords or residents of the council teams for review so that's the final update of the issues which were brought to our attention at the previous area forum meetings and i thank all the councillors for their diligence to follow those items through and give a proper response some of those items will be still obviously not finalized and be a continuing issue to be resolved and updated at future area forums we're now going to move over to agenda item number five and we have a presentation regarding community cranford community hubs um thank you chair using those assets there are some of those really amazing assets that it has already so the council is already working with its partner organizations whether that's in the nhs voluntary sector groups to bring the services into our community hubs so the community hub again as an idea isn't just about a certain building that will have outcomes and all of that is is really community hub activity so services such as citizen's advice job center plus healthy hounds love food box the council's housing teams rnib nhs crosslight debt services all the services that you've you've seen tonight you know i've looked around the room i've been here whether it's enforcement safer communities housing public health they are all present you know in in some shape or form at our community hubs isn't a one-size-fits-all approach so we know that different parts of the borough have different needs residents have have sort of different connections within the community and each of our family hubs sorry our community hubs does need to to look and feel different and reflect the place that it's in we'll have a core offer there's certain services that our research has told us and our engagement has told us that are needed every we definitely have those as a core offer and then actually through the engagement that we're starting we'll understand what each of those specific areas needs and how they need it on the part of the borough that we're in so tonight the focus is very much on cranford and you know and we understand this is the cranford and heston area forum but we are further along our thinking in the cranford area so the focus is very much on cranford for this presentation so it's a large area you know those of you who live in the area will know so it lends itself to more than just one single community hub in the cranford area is very much a campus approach because we understand that there are trusted community venues already in this part of of the borough that we need to use those again as best we can so we are using the data about what we know about cranford and the insight that we're here through you know thomas mentioned his community development team what's going on in certain places what the issues are that time we've got our enforcement colleagues in the room they're always out and about they understand some of the crime and anti-social issues and obviously we've got our house so we feel like we're getting a real understanding of some of the some of the challenges face so it's crucial as it says up there it really is crucial that we understand each of those individual places so as we stand at the moment in the cranford area we do have active community hub activity taking place so we my eyes can just about cope with that we have the new community hub at the children's center on the beavers estate so we've added to the offer already there that was going on so we've got different organizations again whether at that location wednesday mornings complementing like i say what's already there here community the cranford community college we've got we have a really strong working relationship here now and it's a successful pilot has taken place through the through the school summer holidays in partnership with housing associations local a2 dominion citizens advice the felix project sea change west london i think tas has gone but he's been doing some amazing work with us recently um all here and using this as a starting point at the college and then i'm going to hand over to claire in a moment because we think a really really exciting proposal that we're working up at the moment that we want you to be part of and we want to hear your views on is that development can i please ask the residents to refrain from asking any questions questions can come at the end of the presentation please carry on with the presentation so thank you thank you for your question and actually i think i'm about to answer it now during the winter and open it up fully for community use um the library at the moment is closed for a couple of days a week so that would bring the library into use more what would you like to see um down at meadow bank you know what sorts of activities what kind of partners should we be working with um we've got some surveys we've got some paper copies so if you haven't already seen one please pick one out up on your way out of the building um you can fill out some information here there's also an online version of it so that's on our website there's a qr code as well that you can scan to go straight through to there we really want to understand what people think locally in in the local area about that offer as we work it out um chair if we have some time i'm really happy to take some questions right if anybody has any questions to ask can you please raise your hand and i'll take them in due course okay so four questions coming your way first one way it's right go ahead lady to the front sorry mic okay that's okay you can hear so it's i think it's a really great idea that you're bringing so many things together at the medabank center i think it's something that should be praised it's a very good thing the problem so what i wanted to ask is what is going to happen to the cranford library on the bath road and there's a two-prong question down there so number one i think there's like i said there's a there's a lot of merit and having the medabank center with the library in it however the concerns that i have done that it's a little bit hidden away and so that means in terms of being visible accessibility the library is on the bath road it's very visible you can see it on the bus you can see as you're driving down i think you can make make as you quite say that you want to make use of your buildings so what use will you have of the library the existing library so they're really good questions actually and there's no decision being made in terms of cranford library so you're right that is an asset of the councils now so that will become vacant if this proposal goes ahead and progresses as we envisage so that really is an opportunity for the council so it's there with a with with a with a community asset that you're right it's in a it's in a good location but a bad location so many people when we've talked about cranford library they don't quite see where it is because it's a low building and it's on a busy road but those who live in the area do know about it so we have a an asset strategy that's recently been approved by the council's cabinet and there's a commitment in there when we do have such an asset that becomes vacant because of different uses and changing around of how we're using our places and spaces there will be a full options appraisal that goes through a very transparent process in terms of what is the best option for that individual asset so no decisions have been made on that asset asset at the moment the thinking is really just starting so can i then also just then make a suggestion if that's okay um that if because it's such a it's it's a bit of a iconic building and a lot of people know it and it's as you can see it and you want to use as many of your buildings as possible for community community activities then may i suggest that that that library is also brought into the helm of doing community work because i think granted the medabank will make use of the community events that you have there but so will the library because it's more accessible it's more visible rather because just just it would not be nice to see if it was made into some flats totally hear that and like i say whilst there's no decision made i can definitely reassure you in terms of the process that's been designed in terms of the option appraisal that any asset that becomes vacant goes through that sort of uh community element is front and center in terms of what's the what's the capacity what's the need in that area that our insights told us for community spaces so i don't think there will be any rash decisions made about that building before full consideration is given in terms of community use going back to your other point which is i think equally interesting in terms of you're right to some extent about medabank um being a bit hidden away behind the hotel and you know you sort of if you don't know about it you don't know about it but that's the challenge really for us in terms of to promote it um we had cabinet question time um just i'll say last week last week um so there's a commitment there to get that space in that place better known because it's just amazing when when you get in there you see the facility so there'll be a challenge there around communication and engagement and making it well sign posted and trying to use you know places where people do know and explain it's just around the corner from there and so i think we can do it um it's too good an asset and too good a facility to ignore so i think we just have to rise to that challenge of making sure people are aware of it okay i had another person towards the center here can you put your hand back up again no okay then the lady in the green yeah i'm sorry i'm sorry hello can everyone hear me okay sorry um what are you going to do about parking whether it whether it happened let's say in the worst case scenario it doesn't happen there's very little space for parking at cranford library and then let's say on the other hand it's approved yeah and you then put cranford library inside the facility of the medevank center will you call it the cranford library so it goes into the medevank center but the first question is about parking now how on earth are you going to manage more cars how on earth so because i do a drama class there i used to do a drama class there so i mean parking's a challenge borough wide so anything we do in terms of community hubs better use of assets anything we do there's a challenge around parking but but there is public transport to back that up though exactly and for local residents local people local exactly so i think in response to your question is that car parking is going to be when you do the library i know you make it let me understand i think i've got an answer okay i'll be quiet now okay so there is more parking at medevank than cranford library as a starting point so if the proposals do go ahead i think we are on a better footing in terms of parking we're not going to have parking for for everyone turning up by car but we don't envisage everyone turning up by car you know we have to make sure that you know public transport links are as good as possible we have to encourage people to get about on bikes on foot and all all the different methods so i don't think we should not do something because we haven't got some huge car park that everyone who who wanted to visit the hub could go by car you're writing what you say in terms of the parking in particular cranford library currently is very very limited uh so so that is the thing we think so you know but but i wouldn't say we're moving it because of the parking options but it is a it is a i suppose it's an added bonus that there's slightly more more parking there okay can i just interrupt here if you've got a further question use the mic because nobody else can hear you but i think the main substantive question has been answered what do you have but thank you very much um actually i'm doing for and against your pros and cons i would love to see the cranford library in the medevac center so you've got my vote good stuff thank you for that that's the next person okay the lady on the left yeah it's a great idea elliot and claire um because where cranford library is because sorry we struggle to even get out of our road it's just a complete nightmare there's lots of accidents happening there right now um the other thing is but like so when i said when it was open it was like the manager was saying you know your whole residence should come and and i told everybody because i've got a vigilance group and then when they went there they were so like no you can't come in there but that's not fair because it's a it says the word community um and the manager and the staff have to take that on board when you're there because when you go to reception people ask can we have help support use the center and we says it's community we live here they're mostly on their mobile phones but they don't help i'm just being honest because all the residents say the same thing it's not me because i have a voice you know i have but the residents say this all the time valley uncle's there to say it so they need to be a bit more and embrace the community because if you build a community you'll get that support if you don't build a community and give that support then no one's going to give you support and the community center is for the community because when it's closed the library if someone wanted to go and print something like because it's not then they can't go far because they're disabled or whatever just one second um then we get stuck we can't go anywhere and you said medabank community center is a community community from the time it started there because it used to be a hall and people used to use it all the time i mean i think i don't think we would argue with anything you've said so claire mentioned the extended opening hours so people would benefit from that if we do develop a community hub it really does need to be what it says on the tin for the community and a hub of activity so yeah from there we would agree with all the comments there um good okay moving on excuse me i just have one more question to say ask if you don't mind um just with that medabank hub thing so we heard that cranford library is going to become flats from the like the whole road knows about it and even cleveland they've been asking on the vigilance group because there was a thing that went out and everyone read and it probably will be like the british airways building opposite rockies so i'm just saying it is a great idea what you've done um but we hope that they encourage the community and embrace them and help and support them because when you go there and i'm not saying about me i'm talking about the community saying this the staff need to acknowledge not be on the fence just help the people as a community and if you can't then that shouldn't be there either because we are a community okay that's enough thank you very much for your questions can i ask the mic be passed on to the gentleman in the blue thank you um so i probably like a few others here hadn't heard of medabank um from heston and i went to heston school to find out if they're still doing adult education and they said it moved over to medabank and some other locations i guess for efficiency and cost and all those things um i do yeah well we do to some extent you you might be right in terms of we do have obviously amazing facilities at medabank in terms of adult education but just because it's on the top of my mind claire and i were actually at heston library today and there's also a adult education room there as well so it's not the only site in the in the location okay okay thank you and then so the question is around uh this trend that i'm hearing about libraries being managed by communities and less by the local authority and is this a stepping stone towards maybe the library being a sort of a community thing rather than a local authority thing it's a stepping stone to the libraries becoming community hubs but very much still the intention is for them to be run by the council so there's been no discussions within the council certainly certainly um that i'm aware of for the actual management of the running of libraries to be transferred into the community i think the council is is committed to to delivering a great service um enhancing the current service that's in its libraries okay i said there was only four questions but another hand's popped up so i'll take the last question if i may eliot okay um will cranford library still be called cranford library i think this lady asked that question as well so so the the so what it will be in terms of the library provision will be delivered at the community hub so in the overall community hub at the at the meadow bank center initially there will be very much a defined library space so it will be a library service within the community hub so it's not going to be called a library the bill sorry i i i don't hold on i don't think one second sorry one second so there will be how i would envisage this you need to use the mic guys sorry i'm sorry i didn't hear anything eliot was the question about naming the building yeah so can we just have a definitive on naming the business work hello the building itself will be more than a library so it will be called the community hub hello within the community hub there will be an area that's the library so when you talk about the the address i don't think we've thought about that if i'm really honest but it's very much a community hub that has a library service within it right i think that that'll do for the questions for the time being elit i've just got to council rajabat who wants to say a few words if it if it helps the community and it reassures the community it will be the meadow bank hub with the cranford library in it very happy to agree that tonight there you go right thank thank you very much for that presentation but do recall what he said towards you said towards the end so the survey's still out there so on your way out if you want to put your suggestions forward please do so take the opportunity to give you all your ideas on your way out okay we're now going to move on to the open forum but before we move on to the open forum i just want to set out some ground rules um i thought they were up on the screen but they're not so i'm going to read out the ground rules so the open forum this provides an opportunity for residents to share their ideas debate local topics of importance and voice their concerns to counselors and other key representatives of the council so those of you who are participating in the open forum are asked to note the following the questions will be allowed at my discretion as the chair and i will take one question per person we did have an opportunity to allow you to put questions in advance of the meeting but i don't think we've had any uh of those um like i said solely um one question to be posed per person and the items which we've already discussed in the main agenda really don't need to follow on here because we've already covered them so anything that we've already discussed they're not relevant to the open forum and last and by no means least sometimes we have this gray area where there are ward-wide issues which we're very interested to hear but sometimes they drift into individual casework where individual has a problem with a particular issue those kind of things need to be addressed by your local councilor so if i think it's a localized issue i'll be referring you to discuss it with one of my counselors there depending on where you're located so with those ground rules in place ladies and gentlemen the open forum is now open can i have a show of hands as to how many people wish to ask a question and we will start from right to left hi uh this is a question to all counselors not specific to anyone um as you i'm sure i'm sure of you know israel continues its policy of ethnic cleansing recognized by legal experts as genocidal actions in the gaza in gaza and the west bank sorry houndslow pension fund continues to invest to the sum of some 18 million pounds in companies likely complicit in various human rights violations of palestinians these companies are recognized by the un resolution 3136 and the lgps divest campaign they are active in aiding the israeli regime across the life cycle of settler colonialism so from surveillance from companies like nice limited displacement can i just interrupt you do you have a question yeah uh how can the house a pension fund claim to be conducting ethical and responsible investment when this is the reality look as far as the the pension fund is concerned that the hounds of council runs that's an independently run and audited functions and it's not the remit of this area forum to be interfering in how the council allocates his pension fund investments all right right but next question as surely as counselors you will have a say in in how the community no next question hi there hello hello hi um on this topic um under the local government pension scheme it says that there is an ethical investment policy do you know what that is and how often is it reviewed counselor ajawat so the chair is absolutely right it's not for this area forum to talk about the the decisions that the pension scheme takes i'm the lead member for it i have had correspondence on this topic and i'll respond to that correspondence in due course next question so moving from right to left hands up anybody okay we're right over to oh we're right over to the other side so the lady in the back counselor ajawat um and all of the counselors i guess and so i've sent pictures to you of all the drinking that happens in medabank county i spoken to elliot about it today and i've done it for the last four years and there's people doing weed i call the police they come and get them but the camera doesn't whatever name is perm jip whatever her name is she doesn't check things because i have sent pictures everywhere to all of you and shantina you know about it as well and we have elderly people we have women coming late at night from work shift work going through that alleyway it's dangerous you know you've got a family is it this is not the right way and i've done it for like four years now had no response from the council whatsoever i spoke to you about it today and you said kier stammer didn't get back to me uh yes he did and but you're the leader of the council and great leaders lead by example and as a community we would support you shantanu and the counselors you know i'm here to support you but we need support back it's you know you all you know you all have to work together as a team so i ask you to ask a question i did ask a question it's not a question you're making it is a question about the drinking in the alleyway i want to try and help you resolve the issues you have the last time you dismissed me so ask the question so we can you know what there's no point being here because i did ask a question you did not i did ask a question you made a generalized statement of events i asked you the last forum and you dismissed me complete me it's on the video no so please ask your question i'm asking you about the drinking and i said that there's a camera there so why don't your team can you check it okay so you've got yeah because you're not letting me talk you're talking over me which is really rude i think you should let me talk you're being very rude how am i being rude when i'm asking you a question you're going to answer it you're talking over me and i don't think that's really nice it's not respectful question do you want to talk and then i'll talk because that's okay that's fine so that is fine because you don't want the question can you please take the mic from that lady thank you excuse me can i take the mic from that lady please right coming back to that particular issue so i assume the lady in question is from the cranford ward so i would request that the cranford ward councillors meet with the lady in question and resolve the issues that she's presenting if she has said that she's mentioned this at previous meetings um then clearly it's not acceptable please be quiet so please pick pick it up please pick it up after the meeting with her and make sure that i get an update as well so this does not happen again yeah okay so any other questions okay lady at the front please so it's me again um so if if you don't know me i'm umi and i lead cranford action group and no one of the things that we're heavily invested our time is can i just stop you for a minute can i please request you to be quiet so let let let other residents have the opportunity to speak if if you don't right please that's okay so like i said we we we do a lot of volunteer work in trying to looking after our area and one of the one of the factors that we're that really causes us big problems is a lot of cranford is covered by tfl and so that includes the parkway that includes the bath road and even that includes the junction of barkley avenue with the bath road so i've got i know it's a bit cheeky but it's going to come into a two-prong question here but so from my perspective tfl our response i'm not quite clear about this either so it's a question with a question hopefully with an answer so tfl are responsible for for managing those those routes the access into barkley avenue and the problems we have with that is number one is tfl cut the grass and they they fragment the litter so they don't need to pick before it which means that the litter is now it's it's criminal it's environmental it's violence to to nature and that and that takes up a lot of volunteer time in trying to do undo the damage that tfl have done please let me finish okay because i'm quite passionate about this and so is my group i just wanted clarification on that first question which was to do with tfl cutting the grass yeah and at the same time they cut everything any litter that's there that's ready to bits basically and you've got an issue with that we have an issue that's the first one okay that is a question yes that is an issue but this is not just it's not just an issue that's happened now it's it's historical it's a problem that we've had for several years and despite our reports and despite their reassurances to us they still do the same thing time after time now what my question is is can hunt because hounslow council is the authority that you're responsible for this land okay so can you manage tfl better so no no i'm serious like you need to stop them from doing this and the other part of that tfl problem is because they also manage so tfl also covers the parking at barkley avenue entrance now i'm really distressed by telling you this and if people can also empathize with me here in seeing what i'm i'm describing what i see so the parking near the shops is fully always fully fully um it's congested completely congested with taxi drivers and so that means and i have seen this where the elderly people who need to go to the chemist who are who are not able to walk to the chemist and require their vehicles to go there they can't park there for those taxi vehicles who spend large amounts of time in those spaces and that takes away the ability for people to go shopping for their needs so it's tfl but i think hounslow council needs to manage them okay right so two questions and this is cranford ward again is it this cranford ward so i would again urge you to meet up with the council after this meeting do not let the opportunity go by and they will look into the the matter but in terms of my own temp ends work as far as tfl is concerned we have obviously a working relationship with them they have their own protocols and criteria as to what and how they carry out their activities and clearly this is not it's not really good a good idea to do so we'll see if we can find a way to flag it up and raise it with them and to do that in terms of the parking i don't know the area in detail so i think that's probably really a case where you discuss it with your ward counselors to see if they can find a find a solution to that and i think council garwell wants to chip in sure thank you for that if i could add my my two pens as you had 10 in there um first of all uh just like to to put it on record that we really appreciate everything that cranford action group do for cranford residents and for those across the bar and actually for nature more broadly right um you guys genuinely are our gem of cranford and we're very lucky as counselors to have you uh champions of our of our residents in our area thank you so thank you very much um so on behalf of the entire council um and and counselors here thank you for that um in terms of the the points that you've raised as you know i'm an active member of rapid action what's that group as well um so please do share more pictures of these incidents that take place um i i will also check more regularly as well i appreciate that it's been flagged in the past and i have raised it with tfl initially when i was a cranford counselor in 2022 in my previous ward they weren't really involved in it that much but in this ward it started a bit rough uh but the communication has got better with them now over time uh thanks actually to help the leader as well who escalated on his side a couple of years ago um so please do keep sharing um pictures and just more evidence with me or with us as cranford counselors and we'll be happy to pick that up uh on the second point appreciate that's always been a slight pinch point for cranford residents um the top barkley avenue and and uh predominantly minicab drivers using that going to the biryani place i haven't tried it yet but i heard it's good um and and also polluting the area but zam zam sorry um that wasn't a plug for them uh they don't sponsor me um but i i appreciate the more seriousness of the pollution that is caused the littering that's caused by them and also uh you know idle parking keeping their engines on but also blocking bays for residents and especially elderly residents that find it hard to walk and the shoppers obviously in close proximity of those car park spots and so i will pick that up as well thank you thank you council guard on that um are there any residents who have not asked a question i will not be taking questions from anybody who has already asked the question are there any residents here now who have not asked the question would like to ask a question well thank you mr chair but um this is supposed to be an open session but it's turned into be a speaker at the comma commons you speak next next no we won't have you we'll have somebody over here and it's becoming a little bit i was at the march amazing here and like this lady here i was shouted down from the chair and i'm sorry but it it opened up on a very positive note this amazing but it's developed into i don't know i can't describe what it has developed into but it's not my cup of tea to hear people male and female shouted down at chair level whatsoever because this is a rehearsal what goes on in the house of commons sometimes and i hear question time there and it's a disgrace what the speaker allows to be heard thank you do any other residents have any questions that they wish to ask the general at the front in the red so basically um he was doing cleaning up there very long time ago with tears ready and he was helping all together um picking the all all rubbish bin and then we're putting in the inside the inside the gate and then everywhere is it's not good it's it's very smell very badly it's all in the floor they're not picking up the thing the bins and they smell very bad and we were trying to pick everything like like normal then we send the pictures to council and then and then it was it was it was very dumpy and like everywhere in our floor so um so i want to tell how how we can pick the and rubbish bin to clear up every every single dustbin okay um so it sounds like it's anti-social behavior and littering issue that you're trying to discuss that's that's the issue yeah okay and where abouts are you from which area is this happening in it's probably in redwood state and um redwood state state and represent and represent so who are the counselors for redwood state okay so it's quite simple talk to your local counselors after the meeting and they'll pick it up as case we can get them out and looked into yeah so the counselors go well and counselors but thank you yeah okay all right hello um so i spoke before about the rocks being around bradison green as a dog walker um i have to say there isn't enough like um what do you call them poo bins poo bins for the dog dog waste is it possible to get some of them on bradison bradison estate is okay counselor brad what thank you and thank you for the question uh yes it is something that we've picked up on uh i think um it's been mentioned before it's something that we're working on at the moment so yeah absolutely we know there aren't enough but not only around the green but also around this stable generally so yeah the only problem is with the poo bins they tend to get vandalized quite quickly so we're trying to find a solution that's slightly less vandalizable if that makes sense right now i think there was a lady with a hand up on the left there and just to get an indication of how many other residents wish to ask a question can you put any hands up if anybody other any other residents wish to ask a question okay so the last question in the evening is from the madam over there hi um basically i'm aware of um is a very simple straightforward question are you aware or you counselors chair uh counselors chairs all of you represented here today are you aware that there is cladding in crane lodge estate flats it's the entrance of the porch of my front entrance of the porch of my front door i've been uh told twice and i've been twice confirmed i have cladding now recently the report for grandfels come out so is this going to be a mini greenfield because i've been waiting three years for that door and i'm still waiting i hope i'm not waiting in vain so are you aware that there is a cladding you were aware you never told me are you going to allow me to answer your question so yeah are you aware and then how long did you know because you never told me okay until very recently okay ready yes okay i did say earlier on that what we didn't want is a repeat in the open forum about issues which have already been addressed during the action planner and i've been reminded my council garwell here who's from crampsford ward that this issue was addressed earlier in the meeting during the action track and and and if you'd like i'll read it out again for you there's no need to read it out again why was i not told i was told asbestos tiles was not told there was also cladding why was that information kept from me you're going to get the same answer from me we have an update for you oh can we get hold of that yes of course yes yeah okay speak to council garwell after the meeting he'll give you a copy all right that's brilliant thank you very much cheers thank you right um looks like there's no further questions so we're going to move on to i'm not taking uh repeat questions um one question per person okay and we're now going to move on to we're going to move on to oh yeah absolutely it's finished okay so yeah um i thought there was something else on the agenda towards the end but anyway so the the the open forum is is now concluded um and the only thing we need to discuss now or to inform members is um the date for the next uh area forum meeting which will be publicized in due course um i do want to thank all the residents who've taken the time and the trouble to come this evening to participate in the area forum the area forum only works if there's engagement with the residents uh on a on a good basis where we can address the issues that you present to us in a cogent manner having said that um i just like to ask the my fellow counselors is there any other other business no right there's no other business feedback forms oh there is some some business so we did mention earlier on we've had a number of presentations today so there are quite a few surveys out there so do take the time to see the officers on your way out and give your feedback on the area forum meeting but also the surveys regarding the various actions that are taking place i think the the one that i mentioned earlier regarding lamton park the improvements that you would like to see in there and also the reminder about if you wish to attend the gardening sessions at lamton lamton park but do take the time to see officers on the way out and give your feedback thank you very much and i conclude the meeting now thank you we have some it's not working [ Silence ]